Sapphie
by SnowyWolf114
Summary: "Oh. My. Merlin." I whispered, unable to believe it. "No. He wouldn't. He wouldn't dare." But he had. I was covered head to toe in massive, luminous, pink (Merlin how I hate that colour) spots. "JAMES SIRIUS POTTER I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" This story will be discontinued. I feel it is too much of a copy of the first generation, with the marauders and Evans. New story coming soon.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Pink disaster**

It was a typical morning in the Gryffindor common room. The curtains were drawn, and the sky outside was a pleasant baby blue. I had woken up when our dormitary wake up spell (performed by Rose when we were late for class once after sleeping in) opened the curtains and yanked off the cosy covers, exposing us all to the cool air. I had just walked bleary eyed into the bathroom and shut the door in order to get ready, when I caught a glimpse of my reflection.

"Oh. My. Merlin." I whispered unable to believe it. "No. He wouldn't. He wouldn't _dare_." But he had. I was covered head to toe in massive, luminous, _pink_ (Merlin how I hate that colour) spots.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!"

 _How could he have done this to me?_ How? _And_ pink _! On a Monday!_

There was a timid knock on the door. "Umm, Sapphie? What's he done now?" It was Penelope Wood, a girl in my dorm.

"He's gone and bloody well covered me in luminous pink spots, that's what he's done!" I growled. There was a squeal of laughter from the other side of the door, accompanied by several muffled giggles.

"Shut it, Cassie!"

Cassiopeia Malfoy (I know, quite a mouthful isn't it? That's why we shortened it to Cassie) was my best friend at Hogwarts. We'd met on the train when James had decided to test out a new product that he'd bought from _Weasley's Wizard Wheazes_ on all of the girls on the train. The result was a stampede of girls – all covered in multicoloured feathers, I might add – screaming bloody murder and squawking after the culpit who had turned us all into horse sized parrots. It just so happened that me and another girl (Cassie, though I didn't know her name then) managed to corner him while the older girls promptly gave him a taste of his own medicine – by which I mean feed him a spoonful of parrot pumpkin juice, and watch him slowly transform into a large green parrot, which dented his ego massively. He has been mortaly afraid of birds eversince. Anyway...

I was in the worst situation I had ever been in in my entire life. Okay, maybe that was exagerating a little bit, but still... I had classes today! I couldn't turn up covered in pink spots! He was soooo gonna pay for this...

I hurredly had a shower, changed, and started attacking my long, wavy black hair (which right now ressembled a dragons' nest) with my hairbrush, wishing for once that I had short hair. Once I was satistfied that it was tamed, I quickly pulled it back into a ponytail and stormed into the dormitary, where I was greeted by another, louder, scream of mirth and more giggles.

"Shut up and help!" I snapped, glaring daggers around the room. They immediately sobered up, with the exeption of Cassie, still struggling to muffle her snorts of laughter.

"Please? I can't go to classes like this!" I begged, gesturing at my pink spots.

"Why not?" said Cassie, silver eyes sparkling. "Everyone would find you sooo adorable!"

"Cassie, one more unhelpful word from you and I won't hesitate to force-feed you a permanent canary cream. They're part of Uncle George's new range of-"

"Alright alright! Keep your hair on!" She said, beginning to look a bit alarmed. "We'll find a way to fix you!" She turned to Rose, who had opened her _Weasleys Wizard wheezes_ most recent catalog, which she kept handy for times such as this. I tapped my foot impatiently as she flicked through, searching for the cause of my pink spottiness.

"Ahah!" she exclaimed after what felt like years of looking, when in truth it can only have been two minutes at the most.

"What is it?" I asked eagerly. "Have you found it?"

She didn't answer right away, and when a slight frown started to appear on her face, I started to get worried.

"Rose?"

"It says here that spots can be applied by giving the _pink disaster_ potion to the person that you want to be covered in pink spots to drink, either in water or pumpkin juice – any other drink will cause the potion to be permanent."

"Did James give you anything to drink last night, Sapphie?" Cassie asked me.

"Errrr..."I said, trying to think back. "Yes. I was just about to go up to bed, when James offered me a glass of pumpkin juice. I took it and drank it just before bed. I should have known! I thought that he was being strangely nice..."

"Thank Merlin it was pumpkin juice!"exclaimed Cassie.

"Is it removable?" Penelope asked.

"Errrr...yes?" said Rose after breifly scanning the product description again.

 _Why did that sound like more of a question than an answer?_

"Well, at least it says it is. The thing is, you remove it by drinking another potion that comes with the _pink disaster_ package, and I'm having a wild guess in saying that James is keeping that _very_ safe, and won't give it up willingly."

"Aww, man!" I groaned.

"Don't worry, Saph! We'll find some way of getting it off of him before lessons... even if that means we have to torture him for it!" Cassie said, looking quite exited at the prospect.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." said Penelope (or Penny, as we call her), who had a bit of a thing for James. He deosn't seem to have noticed though.

I waited impatiently while the others quickly got ready along with a shy, quiet girl called Milly who I didn't know very well.

Once Cassie was ready, we ran down to the common room with Rose and Penelope trailing behind, followed by Milly who only had one sock on.

"Do you think he's already at breakfast?" I asked Cassie, nervously making sure that all of the spots that could be covered were covered. I must have looked like a right idiot, with random patches of luminous pink all over me.

"Of course not!" She snorted, "You know what he's like – he thinks getting up at lunchtime is early! I'll bet you he's still in bed! Relax. We'll get it sorted before class, don't worry."

"You'll be fine, Sapphie!" comforted Rose.

I took in her words and a deep breath, and tried to calm down. _We WILL get it sorted! Even if we have to torture him be the antidote, we will get it!_ And then a horrible thought occurred to me.

"You do think he's still got the antidote, don't you?" I saw a flicker of panic in Cassie's eyes before she covered it up and said:

"Of course he will! I mean, he wouldn't just throw it away!"

"He isn't that bad!" said Rose, "He can actually be quite nice sometimes, you know."

I seriously doubted that.

A/N - please review! Do you like the characters? Is it an okay first chapter? Improvements? Constructive criticism? Thank you!


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hello again everybody! Or anybody... I have been terrible. But, now it is the Easter holidays and I have decided to try and update again - much more regularly. So I hope you enjoy!**

We had decided to go back up to our dormitory to regroup and plan a battle plan. Make a battle plan? Devise a battle plan? Oh, whatever. We had decided to do that, and now we were ready, battle plan planned out (mostly thanks to Rose), battle formation in place. We had decided, that as I was the most vulnerable, owing to my LUMINOUS PINK SPOTS - _you are going down, Potter_ \- I was to be positioned in the middle, between Penny and Rose, with Cassie leading and Milly bringing up the rear.

"Alright, does everyone know the plan?" came Rose's voice from beside me. We all murmered our agreement. I did know the plan, sort of. I got the gist of it, just maybe not the finer details.

"Ready?" said Cassie in anticipation.

"Let's go kick some Potter but!" I shouted enthusiastically, and Milly giggled from behind me.

"Forward march!" Called Cassie in a commanding voice, and we all set off down the stairs to the common room, keeping in tight formation. At the bottom, there were a few mutters of "Ow!" From everyone, as we all bumped into each other.

"On three." I said, holding my wand at the ready.

"One."

"Two."

"Three!" The door opened with a bang, successfully silencing the whole common room and causing everyone to oggle, wide eyed at us. Well, one of us in particular. Me.

"Bloody brilliant." I muttered, earning a shocked "Sapphie!" From Rose and a chuckle from Cassie and Milly, before Cassie called out to them.

"Alright, clear off, nothing to see here, go back to whatever you were doing, people." Nobody moved, so Cassie glared around at all of them until they obeyed her. All except for one group by the fire. The marauders, second generation, were openly guffawing at me from the best seats by the fire. Alex Jordan, Fred Weasley II, Sirius Black II, and James Potter II.

I glared at them, and so did Cassie and Milly, causing them to shut up.

"James. Sirius. Potter." I said, quietly and slowly, my voice trembling with rage. He gulped. "Give me that antidote right now, or I will hex you into oblivion!"

"I, er... Evans!" Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. My last name was Evans. A bit strange, really, considering that James' grandmother was called Evans before she married James Potter I. Coincidences, eh?

I glared at him again, and raised my wand. James and Sirius flinched, as they were directly in the line of fire, and Sirius muttered, "I think you'd better give it to her, mate. I for one want to be able to live a few more years without being jinxed to jelly..."

(Sirius Black II was son of Tina Britain and Jason Black, who was son of Sirius Black I and Hestia Jones. Jason Black had gone to Illvermorny, which was why nobody knew about him until his son got the letter from Hogwarts, where he had enthusiastically helped form the marauders, much like his grandfather. Anyway, back to the story...)

James huffed and nodded, withdrawing a small phial of purple liquid from his robe pocket, and handing it to Cassie, who gave it to me. I pulled out the stopper and sniffed the liquid, wrinkling my nose at the smell.

"That is the antidote, right James?" Rose asked, and he nodded, clutching his chest where his heart would be and looking insulted. Rose rolled her eyes before giving me an encouraging nod. I took a deep breath, and, pinching my nose, downed the potion in one. I felt an odd, tingling sensation all over, like when you've been out side on a cold winters day and you get into a hot bath. The tingles gradually faded away until I felt completely normal again. I looked down, praying that it had worked. _Yes!_ It had. The pink spots had completely disappeared. Finally!

"Feel alright now, Saph?" Cassie asked, having turned around to watch.

"Yes, I feel normal now. I'm not pink!" Penny laughed, and then we all turned again to face the marauders, who grinned cheekily up at us.

"If you ever-" I began, but Fred cut me off.

"Don't worry, Sapphie. We have a long list of pranks to play on other people. It will be a while until we play another on you."

"It'd better be."

And with that, I turned, and Cassie and I clambered through the portrait hole, and made our way down to breakfast.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been two weeks since the _pink disaster_ incident, and we were now more than halfway through the first term of our second year at Hogwarts. The teachers were piling on the homework, as usual, so even us second years were staying up later than we should be to get it all done. The worst teacher for giving homework was professor Ashworth, who taught potions. He seemed to think that we spent all weekend lounging around doing nothing, so he kindly gave us extra homework to keep us busy. Bloody teacher. Just because he has nothing to do on weekends except mark essays and give them all Ps, Ds and Ts, doesn't mean we like writing them.

My favourite class so far this year has to be defence against the dark arts, although it is closely followed by charms and transfiguration. In DADA we have been learning about all sorts of dark and dangerous creatures, and we've just started learning about jinxes and hexes and how to deflect/repel them. Cassie, of course, has no trouble at all with any of our classes apart from Herbology. It's a bit amusing, really, to watch her wrestle with the mandrakes when trying to repot them, and when she shrieks if the Venomous tentacula's feelers get too close. She, of course, vehemently denies any such thing ever happening, wanting to uphold her brave, feisty reputation.

ooO0Ooo

It was early November, and the weather had began to get steadily colder, occasionally causing the castle to wake up to the grounds sparkling silver with a light dusting of frost. It was on such a morning that Cassie and I awoke and made our way, bleary eyed, down to breakfast, only to find that our usual spot at the Gryffindor table had been nabbed by none other than the four marauders. We stood for a moment, debating whether to kick them off our spot or find somewhere else to sit, when that beckoned us over. Confused, and slightly surprised, we walked over and took a seat. Cassie was between Alex and Sirius on one side, I was between Fred and James, directly opposite her.

"Er, so..." I began, but trailed off, not knowing what to say. Cassie saved me, by asking them,

"Why have you decided to abandon your usual seats and invade our spot instead?"

Fred looked at her. "Well, we have something that we'd like to discuss with You two, if that's okay." Without waiting for an answer, he continued "It's about Milly, in your dorm."

I don't know what I had been expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. "Milly?" I asked, baffled. "Why? Is there something wrong?"

"Yes." Alex Jordan answered. "I don't know if she's told you, but she's my cousin, and I'm a bit worried about her because she's been a bit off recently."

"No, she hasn't told us," replied Cassie, looking as confused as I felt, "And what do you mean, 'off'? I haven't noticed any difference in her..." She ended with a quizzical glance in my direction, silently asking whether I had noticed anything. I shook my head. Alex sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Who does she hang out with at breaks and lunches, or on the weekend?" James asked. I frowned, thinking. Milly would sometimes hang out with me and Cassie...but that was only when we invited her to come and join us. I had seen her in the library with Rose and Penny before, but then again, that wasn't very often either. Hmmm... Had I seen her with a group of Ravenclaws? Maybe... But still, not often enough for them to be _friends..._

"I don't know... she doesn't seem to be good friends with anyone, really. She jumps about, not really staying with one group. She's joined me and Cassie before, and Rose and Penny, and I've even seen her with some Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs sometimes."

Alex groaned, and banged his head on the table. Sirius patted his back and asked for confirmation.

"So she doesn't seem to have any specific friends, then?"

"No, not from what we've seen." Cassie replied, frowning slightly. "It's a bit strange, really. She seems quite a nice girl."

"She is, honestly, when you get to know her," Alex said, "Her problem is that she's a bit shy at first. But once you get to know her, and she's comfortable with You, she's a feisty little pocket rocket. She helped me plan most of my pranks during than summer."

"She's a good egg, that one. She just needs some dependable friends around her so that she can come out of her shell." Fred said, with a pointed look at me and Cassie.

"Us?" I asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes." Said James, nodding. "From what I've seen of her, she'd fit in well with you two."

"So you want us to try and become her friends?" I asked, thinking through what we could do for that.

"Yes. Just, you know, ask her to hang out with you, say when you need help with homework, that sort of thing." Alex said, nodding.

"She'll eventually open up, and become more confident with you." Fred added.

"Okay, we'll try our best." Said Cassie, a determined glint in her eye.

"Thank you." Said James, sincerely. "This means a lot." And with a small smile from three of the marauders, and a yell of "Thank you Saphhie-gem and Cassie-pea!" From Sirius, they left the great hall to go to their first class.

"Sapphie-gem?" Said Cassie, raising her eyebrows.

"You can't talk," I retorted, "He called you Cassie-pea!

"I suppose." Cassie grumbled, "He needs a bit more practice thinking up nicknames. Cassie-pea, honestly!" She snorted. And with that, we picked up our bags and made our way to our first lesson: charms, with professor Flitwick.

ooO0Ooo

"You're late, girls!" Professor Flitwick squeaked when we tumbled through the door into the classroom, panting and out of breath.

"S-sorry, professor." I said, breathing hard, "Didn't...realise...the time."

"That's quite alright, Miss Evans." He said, smiling at me and Cassie. "Take a seat. I was just explaining what we were going to be doing today." He cleared his throat. "Well, as I was saying, class, today we will be practicing the Locomotion charm. Usually students do not learn this until third or even fourth year, but as many in this class are rather advanced for your age," He smiled at Rose, Cassie, the marauders and me, "I have decided that it would be okay to learn it now. The incantation is _Locomotor_ and then the object which you are moving. For example," he raised his wand and pointed it at a chest full of cushions. " _Locomotor chest!_ "

The chest rose a few inches off the floor, and Flitwick directed it over to the other side of the room, where it landed with a _clunk_ on the floor. There were a few oohs and aahs. Flitwick smiled at their interest, and continued. "I will be putting you into groups," their were a few annoyed mutterings at this,"of four, as there's not enough objects to have one each to practice on."

"But, sir!"

"We'll be good!"

"Please let us choose our groups!"

"Quiet, class." Professor Flitwick squeaked, with a high pitched chuckle. "Alright, I will let you choose your groups-" There was a cheer. "If! If, you promise me that you will work as hard as you can to master this charm before the end of this lesson."

There was a chorus of "Yes professor!" And a flurry of movement as everybody stood up and got into groups. The marauders were, of course, together, and so was a group of studious Hufflepuffs (who we had charms with). Penny and Rose went with two Hufflepuff girls, shooting apologetic glances at me and Cassie, but I smiled at them, and led Cassie over to Milly, who looked surprised and slightly flattered that we had chosen to be in a group with her instead of a pair of Hufflepuff girls that were trying to catch my eye.

"Hi Milly!" Said Cassie, cheerfully, smiling at her.

"Hi." She replied shyly.

"Should be fun, eh? Moving stuff around?" Cassie asked.

"Not really," Milly replied, wrinkling her nose, "I'm not much good at charms." We laughed, and professor Flitwick came over, handing Milly a cushion.

"You are to practice with this."

"Sir, why a cushion?" Cassie asked.

"Well, I'd rather not have to send half the class to the hospital wing when they get hit by misdirected heavy objects." He said, smiling at us. "Madam Pomfrey would not be very pleased with me." We laughed, and Flitwick walked away to give out cushions to the other groups.

"We'll, here goes." I said, raising my wand. " _Locomotor cushion!_ "


	4. Chapter 4

It was safe to say that charms was a total disaster. Hardly anybody had managed to get the hang of the Locomotion charm. The few that had - Rose, James, Sirius and Cassie - had hardly any control over it, and cushions had been whizzing across the classroom like missiles, knocking over desks, chairs and Professor Flitwick, who had gone off the idea of doing any more higher level charms in the near future. When it was my turn to practice, our cushion shuffled feebly along the floor at two millimetres an hour. Milly was slightly better at it than me, managing to get the cushion off the floor and moving at a reasonable speed. The only problem was, it moved jerkily and unpredictably, knocking people over if they weren't paying attention to their feet. Me and Milly ended up rolling on the floor, clutching our sides when Cassie managed to make our cushion to do several lighting speed circuits of the classroom on her command, only to have it collide with her when she wasn't paying attention. Milly said that the cushion thought that Cassie was showing off too much, and she ought to be taken down a peg or two. We emerged from the classroom, me and Milly still in hysterics, and Cassie red in the face with her platinum blonde hair sticking up all over the place.

"If you ever mention that to anyone, ever..." She threatened, trying go fix her hair on the way to potions.

"Don't worry, Cass," I said, wiping my eyes,"Your secret is safe with us." Milly nodded.

"It had better be." She growled as we entered the classroom. I took my place next to Sirius (not willingly, of course - Professor Ashworth was the one teacher in Hogwarts who insisted on a seating plan - Yet another reason I didn't like him), while Cassie smugly took her seat beside Milly, who smiled slightly apologetically at me. I grimaced back, while Sirius, who was watching our silent conversation, gasped.

"Evans! What was that look for!"

I decided that the best way was to feign innocence. "What look?" I asked, carefully arranging my features into what I hoped was the picture of innocence. Unfortunately, it seemed my innocence facade needed a little work, as Sirius snorted.

"Don't you try and act all innocent on me, Sapphie-gem!"

I inwardly winced at the ridiculous nickname, but luckily he didn't notice, and continued.

"I saw that look to Silly-Billy-Milly!" Milly turned round annoyed, having heard her Sirius special nickname, and narrowed her eyes. I shrugged, and she turned back around.

"You don't like sitting next to me! I am hurt, gemstone! You, um, grev-... grive-...er, gravy-"

"I think the word that you are flailing around for is _grievously_ , Sirius." We both turned around to see Alex grinning at us from the row behind, and I rolled my eyes. Sirius, on the other hand, clapped and shouted excitedly in my ear.

"That's it, Alex! Evans, you _grievously_ wounded me!"

"Sirius! That was right in my ear, you dunderhead!"

"Aww, but you don't mind, do you, Sapphie-gem? You love hearing my angels voice! It makes up for you not having one!"

"Black, you are such an a-"

"Ooh, are we resorting to last names now, Evans?"

"Yes we are!"

"And why, may I ask, is that?"

"Because, you are being a p-"

But at that moment, professor Ashworth strode in, ending our shouting match. I didn't particularly want to lose fifty points from Gryffindor in the first month of school. I think I would find myself decidedly unpopular with the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Alright, settle down." Professor Ashworth said, smiling around at us, baring his yellowing teeth. The class fidgeted uneasily, and I caught Cassie's eye, who silently confirmed my suspicions.

"Today we will be brewing the dizziness draught." The whole class groaned. The dizziness draught was an extremely complex potion, involving lots of precise stirring, and you had to add the ingredients or turn up the heat at exactly the right time. Ashworth's smile widened.

"The instructions-" he flicked his wand. "Are on the board." They appeared there. "You will find any extra ingredients needed-" he flicked his wand again. "In the store cupboard." Said cupboard opened. If it was possible, his smile widened even more. "You may begin."

I sighed, and read the first line of the instructions on the board.

 _1\. Half fill your cauldron with diluted swooping evil venom, and leave to simmer on a low heat. Add powdered root of Asphodel. Stir seven clockwise, two anticlockwise, four clockwise. It should turn a pale cerulean._

Another annoying trait of Professor Ashworth was that he seemed to find it entertaining to use complex colours that some people have never heard of to describe how our potions are supposed to look. Luckily, I had seen this colour just this morning, my Mum having sent me a new scarf, after I complained about my old one being holey. She said in her letter that came with it that the scarf was not just blue, but cerulean, and would match my eyes perfectly. I had rolled my eyes at this. I mean, blue was blue. But still, it came in handy. And it was a rather nice scarf.

I was jolted out of my thoughts when Sirius poked me in the ribs.

"Eeeeeek!" I squealed, squirming away. Sirius frowned, eyebrows raised, and I could tell that he thought something was wrong with me.

"I'm ticklish under there!" I defended myself, crossing my arms and making sure to cover up my ticklish areas. Sirius rolled his eyes, which greatly annoyed me.

"Why did you feel the need to prod me, anyway?"

"I was going to ask you, before you so rudely interrupted me with your piggy squeals, what does the colour Ker-oo-leen look like?"

I stared at him blankly for a few seconds before realising what he meant.

"Oh! Cerulean!"

"Well, whatever that colour is in the first line of the instructions."

"Cerulean." I confirmed. He looked at me expectantly.

"Its a sort slightly cyan-blue."

He raised an eyebrow. "And cyan is..."

"A bluey-turquoise." I explained.

"Right, so ceru-leen-"

"Cerulean."

"Yeah, that, is a bluey-turquoise-blue?"

"Correct."

"Why does everything have to be so complicated?" He whined, letting his head fall onto the desk. "Ow." He muttered, rubbing it. I snorted, before getting up to collect the diluted swooping evil venom - I already had powdered root of Asphodel, as it was in my potion kit.

"Here." Said a voice from beside me. I turned to see Milly, holding three jars of the diluted swooping evil venom. She handed one to me.

"Thanks." I said, gratefully, eying the not-so-orderly queue, where people were pushing and shoving each other to get the venom. Milly just smiled, and made her way back to her and Cassie's desk. I went back to mine to find Sirius frowning at his potion, which was a pale pink rather than cerulean, and was bubbly ominously. I groaned.

"Sirius, what's that your holding?"

"Powdered root of Asphodel." He said showing me.

"No it's not! That's dried foxglove petal!"

"Oh!"

I turned back to my still empty cauldron, leaving Sirius to figure out how to save his potion. I followed the instructions, and carefully stirred my potion seven clockwise, two anticlockwise, four clockwise. To my delight, it turned a pleasant pale blue, or cerulean as Ashworth described it. I continued painstakingly following the instructions, until with five minutes to go, I read the last line:

 _Pour in two drops of infusion of wormwood, and stir three clockwise, eleven anticlockwise. Leave on a high heat for two minutes, then turn the heat off. Stir vigorously until the potion turns a bright indigo. Steam should be turquoise, and once the potion settles it should have a glassy surface._

I reached for my glass phial containing infusion of wormwood, and realised that I was running low. Making a mental note to ask my Mum to get some more from Diagon alley, I poured in two drops of it, just as the instructions said. Once the cork was firmly back in, I stored the potion: three clockwise, eleven anticlockwise, then turned up the heat. I watched the potion bubble and boil as I counted in my head. _1, 2, 3..._

I turned to the side to see Sirius struggling with his potion.

 _18, 19, 20..._

I noted with satisfaction that, unlike my potion, which was a pinky-purple, his was a bright, sulfuric yellow.

 _1 minute, 1 minute and 1, 1 minute and 2..._

A sizzling noise led me to, once again, glance over at Sirius's potion, which was now giving off the foul smell of rotten eggs, and grimaced, but continued watching my own.

 _1 minute 29, 1 minute 30, 1 minute 31..._

I smirked as Sirius' potion started spitting, and he desperately tried to rescue it. I almost felt sorry for him. I would have, if he hadn't jeered and mocked my efforts on certain other potions before, having before him the perfect example of what the book described.

 _1 minute 49, 1 minute 50..._

Ten seconds to go, and I took pity on him, deciding to help him once I'd finished mine.

 _1 minute 57, 1 minute 58, 1 minute 59-_

 _BOOM._

I screamed, along with several others, as Sirius' potion exploded, splattering all over me. It was thick and lumpy, sticking to my face and robes like ancient super glue, and I was dismayed to find that it hadn't lost its acrid smell of rotten eggs.

"Silence!" Shouted professor Ashworth over the screeches of the class. "Miss Evans, Mr Black, go to Madam Pomphrey. Mr Potter and Miss Malfoy, kindly escort them there."

"Yes sir." Said James and Cassie, and I saw with annoyance that they both wore similar expressions of trying very hard not to laugh.

"Come on, Saph." Cassie chuckled, taking my arm and helping me to the door, careful not to touch any of the yellow gloop which was Sirius' potion. She then grimaced. "Merlin, that reeks!"

"I would know. It's right beneath my nose!" I grumbled. She got the message.

"Right, let's get you to the hospital wing, and fast! The quicker you get that stuff of you, the better!" Not waiting for James or Sirius, Cassie frogmarched me from the room, ignoring the sniggers of our classmates.


	5. Chapter 5

It was the next day before madam Pomfrey finally released me from the hospital wing. Sirius' potion took ages to come off, but when it did, it revealed green marks on my skin where it had been. According to madam Pomfrey, it had irritated my skin, but also transferred some pigment into it, too. When I had been on the verge of having a full blown panic attack - hey, don't blame me! Nobody wants green skin for the rest of their life! - She informed me that by drinking this peachy coloured potion for a day, every hour, my skin would return to normal.

So, the morning after the incident, I was completely de-gunge and de-greenified, and was ready to go in time for breakfast. But, alas, Madam Pomfrey's fussing made me miss breakfast, and instead, I had to go straight to transfiguration with my tummy grumbling. I took my usual seat next to Cassie, who turned to me.

"What took you so long?"

"Madam Pomfrey was fussing, as usual."

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Honestly, that woman."

"At least she's a good healer." I reminded her. "We could have had a rubbish one."

"Yeah, I suppose."

But then professor Mcgonagall walked in, and we fell silent. She had this way of successfully silencing a class, without even needing to do anything. Just her mere presence commanded quiet.

"Good morning." She said briskly. "Today we will be continuing our work on transfiguring rabbits into cushions. I should hope that by the end of the lesson, we will have plenty of pretty cushions, and not many cushions with ears." Her eyes flickered over to Penny, who blushed scarlet. Transfiguration was her worst subject.

"Here are your rabbits. You may begin."

By the end of the lesson, I was feeling quite pleased with myself. My cushion was plump and squishy, with blue and green stripes. It was almost as good as Cassie's, who's was red, with little gold, glittering stars.

"You know, I do wonder, sometimes, when we're actually going to need to know how to turn a rabbit into a cushion," Penny grumbled as we made our way back to the dorms to drop of our stuff before neurobiology. "Because it's not very helpful."

"Ahh, you never know, Penny, when you'll find yourself all alone in an empty room with only a rabbit, and you need a pretty cushion." Cassie said in a mystical voice, much like professor Trelawney's, and me and her snorted, while Penny and Rose just looked confused. We don't actually have her yet, of course. We're only in the second year. But next year, I am definitely not taking divination. Me and Cassie bumped into her in first year on our way to astronomy. To me, she resembled a glittering, jangling old insect. I'd had nightmares for a week after, full of giant mutant insects who predicted your demise whenever they saw you.

ooO0Ooo

It was only after dinner when we were lounging around in the common room, that I noticed that I hadn't seen Milly all day. I felt a bit guilty about not noticing for the whole day that she was absent. We were supposed to be making an effort to be her friends.

"Cassie, have you seen Milly around today at all?"

She frowned, and her eyebrows knitted together. "No, now that I come to think of it, I haven't. I wonder where she is..."

"You don't think she's ill or something, do you?"

"I dunno. But wouldn't you have seen her in the hospital wing if she was?"

"Mm."


End file.
